firefox

We do a lot of things on the Internet and, these days, we do a whole lot more. For many people, that basically means communicating with others and browsing the Web. While the web browser itself has become the home for much of that, one part of it has actually become the unsung hero of the Web experience. That's why Mozilla is giving Firefox's search bar some much-needed attention to make it easier to search for things, even pages you may have forgotten are already opened.

Ads have become a nuisance on the web, forcing both users and even browser makers to take heavy-handed solutions to fix that problem. More often than not, these involve blocking ads and third-party tracking cookies that, unfortunately, also deprive legit sites of a source of income. While Google is working on making well-behaved ads more trustworthy, Firefox maker Mozilla is taking a different approach and has partnered with Scroll to offer an ad-free experience but at a small price.

This morning Mozilla released Firefox Preview 4.0, AKA early peeks at fun features for the forward-thinking individual. The Firefox Preview download for version 4.0 seems right up on the edge of pushing into the general release - not that the average user would know the difference. There are so many Firefox browser editions out now that you'd be excused if you just tapped them all and started thrashing about.

Google Earth can be a handy - or at least fascinating - tool to use, and though it's available as an iOS and Android app, its web implementation has been fairly limited. Thus far, Google Earth on the web has only been available through Chrome, and though Chrome is a popular browser, that ultimately limits the number of people who can access Google Earth on the web.

Today in the USA, Mozilla updated Firefox for security and privacy purposes. They did this with DNS over HTTPS (DoH), a system which encrypts the interactions between computers and servers when they connect via the Internet. Because of the way insecure DNS works, "lookups" of servers done by your computer when connected to the internet are vulnerable to malicious agents. DoH stops all that business.

Firefox Private Network, the company's subscription VPN service that is still stuck in private beta, has been updated with support for its own Android app. This expands the software support from Windows 10 and ChromeOS, though apps still aren't available for macOS, iOS, or Linux. The service isn't free, but it is quite inexpensive...assuming you can get an invite to sign up for the service, that is.

Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind Firefox, seems to always be reinventing itself. It has tried numerous times to create new revenue sources, changed a classic logo, and even introduce paid features and services. It has also recently reinvented its browser for Android, almost throwing away many of the conventions and features that users have become accustomed to over the years. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that also includes add-ons of which only a handful will work with the new Android version of the browser when it launches.

The Web as a whole has shunned the kinds of ads that pop up in your face but, unfortunately, there are some popups that may be critical to protecting the user. These usually involve asking the user's permission to use cookies or send them notifications. Of these two, the latter is actually less critical considering almost all users either ignore the request or say "No" outright. Fortunately, browser makers have finally taken notice and have implemented less annoying ways to ask users' permission.

Once upon a time, you couldn't go living a normal Internet-connected life without an anti-virus software of some kind. While the threat and effects of malware haven't really gone down, the quality of said security software sadly has. Some of the giants in that industry have been gobbled up by even bigger giants while others have been accused of using their reach for their government or for their own profit. The latest to fall prey to that tactic is Avast, which also owns the free AVG software, and its questionable activities are apparently also at work even on web browsers.

Given the number of things they do on the Web and the number of news regarding hacks and scams, you'd think people would be more careful about their online activities. They would if not for the sometimes complicated process of ensuring that no one is watching you. That's why browser makers are bending over backward to make it easier for their users to protect their privacy, sometimes just by flicking a switch. For Mozilla, that goes beyond more powerful Do Not Track features in firefox and right into VPN territory, which is what its Firefox Private Network or FPN wants to offer to the next batch of beta testers.

Scams have been in existence from the earliest days of human civilization but technology and the Internet have given less conscientious agents a broader and longer reach than ever before. Such scams cove a wide variety of techniques and consequences, ranging from the annoying to the destructive. A new breed of scams is now starting to go around affecting Firefox users that, while not entirely destructive, may appear so legitimate that it will scare users into some harmful reaction.

Earlier this year, Mozilla revealed that it will be tackling the issue of annoying notification permission prompts that appear on many websites as soon as they load. In an update on the matter published on Monday, Mozilla detailed the results of its experiment on how best to deal with these notifications and explained how it will change its browser's way of handling them starting with a future version of the software.